Papelbon spins a beauty

Jonathan Papelbon's best pitch of the night didn't go into Jason Varitek's catcher's mitt, but rather into Kevin Youkilis's elongated - and in this case, humiliating - first baseman's glove.

With two outs in the eighth inning, and Papelbon fresh from nearly taking a Matt Holliday line drive to his body, the Red Sox righthander made a quick pivot to first as Holliday leaned just a half-step too far toward second base.

Here's the highly technical inside baseball term for such instances: Gotcha!

"I held the ball, and it was just a simple pick," said Papelbon, his laser toss to first so far ahead of the scrambling Holliday it left the Rockies left fielder trying to swim his way back to the bag on the infield dirt. "Just a simple pick over, and it will probably go down as one of the biggest outs of my career so far."

The out ended the eighth frame and prevented Papelbon from having to throw a single pitch to the cleanup hitter, Todd Helton. As the frustrated Holliday picked himself up off the ground, the sellout crowd of 36,730 in a frenzy, Helton quietly returned from the batter's box to the dugout - only to return in the ninth to get fanned by the flamethrowing Papelbon.

All in all, the night was "The Papajima Show," dubbed by Sox starter and winner, Curt Schilling, who admired the relief performances of Hideki Okajima and the mighty Papelbon. Schilling exited in the sixth, his right arm too tight to continue, and Okajima worked into the eighth, finally yielding to Papelbon after fanning Colorado's 1-2 hitters, Willy Taveras and Kazuo Matsui.

"That's the best-case scenario the way it worked out," said Sox skipper Terry Francona, asking how he strategized the inning before the Rockies came to bat in the eight. "But Pap was going to face Holliday, regardless."

And that he did, almost to bodily harm. Looking for a strikeout, Papelbon reached back and fired a high-90s heater that Holliday drilled through the box, shoulder high on the 6-foot-4-inch Papelbon. In the last fraction of a second, Papelbon ducked, and was conveniently spared: 1) a close call and 2) a trip by ambulance to the local emergency room.

Papelbon's life and limb both spared, the perfect pickoff was in place.

"We don't throw over to first base on our own, for the most part, ever," said Schilling, admiring the toss to first by Papelbon. "It's always a sign from the bench."

The sign came from Sox bench coach Brad Mills, who signaled to Varitek behind the plate.

"I don't want to divulge too much," said Varitek. "But it was a 'throw over' sign. Matt [Holliday] can get some bags; he's something like 11 for 15 [stealing bases] . . . and so Millsie read the situation right and got us an easy out."

Easy was a striking understatement. The Rockies down a run, 2-1, Holliday was desperate to get himself to second in hopes he could come barreling home on a Helton single. One step off. Two steps off . . . three . . . four steps off. The split second before Papelbon's lightning-quick pivot, Holliday appeared to shift his weight toward his right hip, as if he were about to cheat toward second.

Not to be. Down in a heap went Holliday, and off to the dugout went the Red Sox.

"No, honestly, I wasn't," said Papelbon, asked if he were surprised by how easy it was to pick off Holliday. "I was kind of picking over there just to keep him at first base, and not let him get a walking lead. But . . . it kind of did surprise me, to be honest with you."

Just like that, in mid-sentence, Papelbon changed his interpretation of what the play meant to him, how he viewed it. Just like the play itself, everything changed in a flash.

"I did get that from Tek," said Papelbon, explaining the mechanics that led to the toss to first. "I pick sometimes when I am not supposed to pick, or when it doesn't come from the dugout. Obviously, I don't pick a whole lot, but the one time I do pick this season, it happens to be a big one."

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at dupont@globe.com.